Amid blistering heat wave, local nonprofit delivers water to unhoused Skid Row residents


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Water Drop LA volunteers stack pallets of bottled water in the group’s staging area before heading to its Skid Row distribution. (Tomoki Chien | Daily Trojan)

A local nonprofit is delivering more than 2,000 gallons of water a week to unhoused residents on Skid Row, amid a searing Southern California heat wave.

The group, Water Drop LA — which has delivered water to Skid Row every Sunday since July 2020 — relies largely on small-dollar donations to fund its work. Aria Cataño, the group’s co-founder and a USC graduate who holds a master’s in urban planning, said that Water Drop has upped its weekly gallonage to 2,500 given this week’s triple-digit temperatures.

“We’ve struggled as a smaller organization to get grants that would cover the amount of funding that we need in order to keep operating every day,” Cataño said. “So we really do rely on those small-dollar donations.”

Unhoused individuals, who often lack access to air-conditioned spaces and suffer from extreme temperatures amplified by little shade and large quantities of asphalt, are especially at-risk during heat waves. This week’s soaring temperatures put those residents at a particular risk of dangerous heat-related illnesses.

Every Sunday, the group buys its water from Costco, which it then loads into rented U-Hauls and divvies among the all-volunteer force of around 30 in a parking lot near the USC Village. The volunteers also include clothes, snacks, ice and, occasionally, Powerade in each delivery — or “Water Drop,” as they call it.

After loading in the parking lot, the group delivers its material along pre-planned routes over the course of an hour or two. 

“If you have access to water readily … I don’t think you think about how often we use water to wash your hands, to take a shower, to drink, to cook things,” said Tylar Hedrick, a junior majoring in international relations and Spanish who has volunteered with Water Drop since last December. “You don’t really realize that until you’re in a position where you don’t have it.”

A Water Drop LA volunteer loads pallets of Powerade onto a dolly before distributing them to individual volunteers’ cars. (Tomoki Chien | Daily Trojan)

It costs around three to five thousand dollars to fund each drop. Cataño said the group has raised close to $50,000 in the last three days, and noted that the group tends to see an uptick in donations when it’s hot out — but that the organization needs those donations year round.

“A lot of times, organizations stop showing up when it’s hot,” said Claire Edelman, who has volunteered with the group since its first drop. “Being able to show up for people when it’s brutal out here means a lot to folks.”

Edelman said she usually brings cat food along with the rest of her drop material to help feed unhoused residents’ pets, and Hedrick noted that unhoused residents will often need more water for their pets during heat waves.

“I think it’s just important that USC students learn to consider downtown L.A. and Skid Row as part of their community,” Cataño said. “I know how much of a bubble [USC] can be, and I would just really implore people to look outside of that bubble a bit more … If you can just keep a couple frozen water bottles in your fridge or your freezer and pass them out when you see people around, that can go a long way.”